MARY LYON FROM THE LEFT: The Chirping Cricket Party

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Wed Mar-15-06 12:47 PM
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MARY LYON FROM THE LEFT: The Chirping Cricket Party

By Mary Lyon -- World News Trust

Ah, the sweet sound of non-representation. All quiet on the western front, and the eastern one, too, and the west, and even the south now, too. Crickets chirping in the gaping silence. Makes me feel like a throwing a crate of East India Company tea into the drink. I know how the protesters in Boston Harbor must have felt. Their complaint was “no taxation without representation.” I’m amazed, by now, to see how much I’m still taxed without having much, if any, of my views and wishes represented in my own government now. I guess not offending the bullies in the House, Senate, or White House is more important than standing up against breaking the law, trampling on the Constitution, or – heaven forbid – listening to your constituents. The Democratic Party has as its mascot a donkey – ostensibly a kicking one. But it’s times like these that make me wonder why they don’t just trade in the donkey for some of those crickets. After all, they seem to be everywhere when Democrats are expected to stand up to Bush and his buddies.

Many of us have tried, ever since this particular nightmare began, to outshout the crickets. When somebody like Russ Feingold (yes, one of ours) comes along actually wanting to hold Dubya accountable for even one of the apostasies of his policies, all you see are Democrats scurrying for cover, as though you shone a high-powered spotlight on their nightly romp in the backyard. I’ve called my own senators, a few in the opposition, too, as well as leaders Reid and Frist, and certainly Feingold, himself, because SOMEBODY has to let him know he’s on the mark about this (his colleagues sure haven’t). Plenty more have called in their support for him also, according to senatorial staffers reporting on their phone traffic. I support Feingold’s call for censure of George W. Bush, even though I don’t think it goes far enough (we should be pressing, full-tilt, for IMPEACHMENT). But you have to start somewhere. It’s too bad that so many Democrats still see this as a nonstarter, and why they seem to be running from the proposal like so many bugs when you lift the rock up and expose their hiding place. Crickets do scatter like that. But at least crickets make some steady noise about this stuff. Sure beats what the Democratic Party-proper is doing these days. They’re letting the crickets do the talking.

Somebody tell me -- what is with these people? Are they so cowed, so numbed, so despondent, that they can’t even work up a good fight anymore? Have they been hiding in some Michael Jackson oxygen chamber or Dick Cheney undisclosed location whenever the results of a new public opinion survey are released -- and hashed out by talking heads on the airwaves and in print from coast to coast? Have they been told that when your opponent is on the ropes, make sure to give him enough wiggle-room to get out of danger again -- so he can regroup, and pound you into the ground? How about, when your doctor finds a malignant tumor in your body, and decides the best strategy is just to wait it out and see if it’ll go away by itself? How ‘bout if the “Swift Boat Swifties” start attacking you -- is it really better to wait for everything to blow over because it’s considered far more noble to take the high road and not dignify the attacks with any comment whatsoever? And we ALL know that “swiftboating” will indeed just harmlessly blow over, now, won’t it?

It makes me almost shriek with frustration to see no one exploiting the multiple opportunities the Democrats are now being handed on so many silver plates. Let me count the ways: the latest AP/Ipsos poll that finds Junior at 37 percent in job approval, what this survey sees as the lowest of his presidency. It’s almost seven out of ten people who say the United States is on the wrong track -- a six point jump since February. Even the writer of this staid Associated Press story describes most Americans as wondering “whether Bush is up to the job.”

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http://worldnewstrust.org/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=2709